*boilk boilk boilky boilk boilk Mcboilkity boilk boilk boilk*
Having returned from London last night I can now safely say that if I see another beer ever again it’ll be too soon. Well, ever might be too strong. Certainly until Wednesday.
What a fantastic weekend though. The Arseblog 5-a-side tournament took place on Saturday afternoon and the Green team, captained by yours truly, fought off the jet-leg, the hangovers and the fact we were playing away from home, to triumph over the reigning champions the Whites, as well as the Blues, the Reds and the Piss Drinking Yellows.
We lost our first two games but went on a 6 match winning streak conceding only one goal in that run. So well done to all my Green teammates and commiserations to all the rest. Better luck next year. Na-na-na-naa-na and all that. We Greens may just remind you of our win from time to time but you can be assured that we will not gloat unduly or for too long.
I should point out that the last sentence is the biggest lie I have ever told. In your faces, cuntos!
Special thanks must go to WestStandTone for organising and doing so much to make it all happen. Along with his team of officials Ms K, Dubs, KT, Esso and MarkM they gave so much of their time to ensure that everything went smoothly and I cannot thank them enough.
Martin and the staff of the Tollington were fantastic too. Keeping us fed and watered and enduring some awful but hilarious singing.
It was fantastic to see everyone there, share beers and food and a weekend which will live long in the memory (despite the bits that were wiped from the memory due to over-consumption of beer and rum). Top Arseblogging everyone and thanks so much. I hope I haven’t forgotten anyone. If I have I do apologise and beg forgiveness due to my head not being as unfuzzy as it might be.
There was also the small matter of a football match involving Arsenal too. It wasn’t quite as awesome as the Green Army’s display but a 2-0 win is decent build up ahead of the United game. Both goals came from Cesc Fabregas who might just have found his shooting boots at the right time. His last goal was the late equaliser against Sunderland at the Stadium of Light so it had been a while.
A goal in each half and again we saw him deployed as the support striker, playing behind Bendtner. Arshavin played left while Denilson and Nasri were the central midfielders. The use of Nasri there is interesting, he’s busy, works hard, tackles well and uses the ball effectively when he gets it. The manager said:
Usually Fabregas plays deeper with Nasri higher. I wanted to test how it would work the other way round. It could be reiterated that we will do it again because it was quite convincing. But that is open; we have 48 hours to study that then make a decision.
I have to say I’m not sure I really like Cesc playing there. I think we miss him too much from his regular position and it’s probably a sign that the manager isn’t convinced by others in that role that he’s playing his best central midfielder out of position.
Boro’s lack of fight was amazing to me. This is a team scrapping to stay in the league yet the game was played at a leisurely pace, a Sunday afternoon stroll in the sunshine. There was no urgency about them at all and although Almunia made one good save from Aliadiere they really didn’t threaten. We might have had a few more goals as well but you never got the sense that it would anything other than an Arsenal victory.
It’s good preparation for Wednesday, obviously, but I have to say I did wince a couple of times when Cesc was on the receiving end of a couple of bad tackles, both from behind and neither of which was punished by the referee. He was obviously feeling the effects and Arsene said afterwards:
He told me it was the knee that he had before and we don’t like that. But he told me after the game that the ankle is worse than the knee so it’s not too bad.
Ah well, once the ankle is worse then that’s all right. What an odd thing to say. Johan Djourou played the second half for the injured Sylvester (another central defender injured) and looked a bit rusty, I have to say, so the playing time won’t have done him any harm at all.
Funniest moments – Arshavin’s two attempts, one of which ended up by the corner flag, the other a complete fresh air shot. Something of the sublime to the ridiculous after the Anfield display but that’s football.
So overall a good display, despite some of the subs treating the game as if it were a training match which was disappointing, and it now leaves us 10 points ahead of Aston Villa with just 12 points left to play for this season. Still 6 behind Chelsea though so maybe third is looking more distant but you never know.
Obviously all eyes will now turn to the Champions League and Manchester United. We’ve got a couple of days to prepare for this so we won’t go into too much detail now but the boss said:
We’ll go with belief, desire and enjoyment. We will give absolutely everything to do it. What is important on Wednesday night is that we are at our best. When we are at our best we can beat everybody.
True enough and our record in big games this season has been very good. It’s going to be a massive, massive game, I can feel the excitement starting already, but as I say we’ve got a couple of days to get ready for this so we’ll leave it there for today.
Till tomorrow then, folks. I’m off to polish my medal. And that, for once, is not a euphemism.
ps – please note the site will be offline tonight from about 11pm for about 2-3 hours due to scheduled maintenance. Apologies in advance for the inconvenience.
